Just A Thing
by Enigmaforum
Summary: It was just a thing they did. A thing that no one else knew about. They were simply each other’s go to people when their roommates decided to get overly friendly. Friends is what they were. Nothing more, nothing less. They just did this thing..


**Disclaimer: I do not own Star Trek. That glorious universe belongs to the wonderful Gene Rodenberry. I just like playing with his characters. (And really if I owned it..I'd have access to Chris Pine and that's not ever happening so…yeah no.)**

**AN: I really don't know what prompted me to write this. I'm actually a shipper of other pairings for the Reboot...but hey when inspiration strikes..go for it. I'm actually pleased with it. It's my first time venturing into the Star Trek XI writing verse and I don't think it's my last. This can be read as a friendship fic or if you squint really hard a McCory/Uhura could be implied. **

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It was just a thing they did. A thing that no one not even their best friends knew about because they were sure that if said friends knew, they'd never let them live it down. And the truth of the matter was they really didn't do anything. They just slept in the same room, in the same bed, plastered against each other some nights when one of them was sexiled. Nothing happened in said bed, just sleep, and maybe the occasional touch but that was all. It wasn't a relationship at all. It was simply a close friendship that had been born out of a mutual need to get some rest.

Because really, when you're roommates happen to be Gaila and Jim Kirk respectively, and said roommates tend to like having lots of sex with each other, you really saw the need to get yourself a back-up plan for where you spent your nights. After all, it was either that or scar yourself for life by listening to said two people have sex with each other while you were right there in the room.

So it was because of this mutual desire to not be scarred for life and to actually get some sleep that Leonard McCoy and Nyota Uhura had become each other's go to people when Jim and Gaila were involved with each other. It was actually through their roommates that they'd managed to meet at a bar one night a few months ago. They'd both been there with their respective friends and had ended up alone together when Jim and Gaila had decided that their fun time needed to continue in someone's room. So it had left Leonard and Nyota to fend for themselves and they'd ended up talking, finding out that they really had a lot in common and at the end of the night, when Leonard had discovered that his room was where Jim had ended up, he gratefully took Nyota's offer of a floor for the night.

And that was how their little routine started. They usually ended up in the same room about three times a week and then sometimes spent entire weekends in the same room together depending on how riled up their roommates were for each other. It all depended on Jim and Gaila and their overactive libidos but Leonard and Nyota were always prepared to go to the others room when necessary.

They each knew each other's door codes and had spare cadet uniforms stored in each other's closets. They'd even taken to storing a second set of shower supplies with the uniforms because both refused to smell like the other's respective scents the next morning. When they spent their evenings together they simply studied, did assignments, or listened to each other bitch about what was going on with their lives. Nyota was extremely attentive whenever Leonard moaned about the hospital being filled with incompetent children for Doctors or his latest research project. In exchange, Leonard listened to her talk about being homesick, and her incessantly growing feelings for one Mr. Spock, a Vulcan who had once been her Professor, and was now her employer as she was an aide to the Xenolinguistics department. They spent a lot of time talking to each other about things precious few other people knew about during their nights together because they simply felt comfortable with each other. Both knew the other wasn't about to go blab their most personal secrets to anyone else. And then on those nights when they were both ready to actually sleep they collapsed on the same bed together. It was purely for hygienic reasons when it came to both rooms because with their roommates' love of sex and their inability to clean anything there was no way in hell they were risking catching any kind of disease.

Of course they hadn't always shared a bed to sleep in. No when they'd first started this little thing, when they'd realized that Jim and Gaila would be having a lot of sex together, there had been floors, lots of floors and lots of sleeping bags. Of course there had been fighting because Leonard always ended up in them and she'd protested but they were both stubborn as mules and refused to budge until one night when they were in Leonard's room and she'd simply pulled him down on the bed and pinned him there with her body. She'd refused to let him move until he agreed to just share a damn bed with her or she'd cut his dick off so fast it wouldn't even be funny.

That threat had had Leonard agreeing to whatever she wanted and from that night on, maybe four months ago, they'd just slept in the same bed together. They usually started off on separate sides, but those Starfleet issued Academy beds were definitely not made for two people, so at some point during the night they ended up against each other. They usually awoke with her back against his front, an arm of his wrapped protectively around her waist as their hips pressed together. It was a closeness that had been very awkward at first but now was simply a comfort to the both of them on the nights they were together.

Nights like tonight for instance. Leonard had just had the day from hell at the hospital, a flight simulator had malfunctioned and brought in minor injuries and burns and of course the hospital had been understaffed. He'd had to help treat all of those injuries, fix the mistakes of the incompetent med staff employed there, and deal with the usual flow of patients that filtered through the Academy's hospital. And then to top it all off, just when he'd been about to get off of his eighteen hour shift there had been an emergency surgery that he'd needed to consult on.

So really he'd been at the hospital for well over a day and had been exhausted beyond all belief and what had he discovered upon coming back to his dorm room that night? That Jim and Gaila were most definitely in there and having wild sex that he wanted no part of. So it was with an exhausted mind and body that Leonard managed to drag himself over to the dorm that Nyota and Gaila occupied and get himself up to their room. He glanced around the hallway once there, noted that it was deserted because it was late on a Friday night, and then quickly entered a code that he had come to know by heart.

When the door slid open he wasn't surprised to find her there, sitting at her desk hunched over a padd, murmuring something in some language that has never heard of under her breath. She glances up when he steps inside the room and he notices the frown gracing her lovely face as he leans against the wall.

"Bad time?" He asks and she shakes her head.

"Of course not. You know you're always welcome here. You just look like hell Len."

He smiles at the nickname that she only uses when they're alone like this. Anywhere else in public it's McCoy or Doctor but right here, right now, they're just Len and Nyota.

"Just spent a damn day at the hospital surrounded by infants who wouldn't know a sprain from a break if their lives depended on it. Got no chance to sleep during my shift because we were understaffed, and when I'm finally free of that place I come home to find that our roommates are busy being loud and noisy," he rattled off as he finally made his way through the room only to stop and collapse on top of her bed. "Need I go on?"

"No. But you can get the hell off of my bed because I can smell the hospital from here. Go shower. You're stuff's already in there. After you're clean you can sleep."

"You knew they were over there?" He asked as he raised his head to glare in her direction only to receive and amused glance in return.

"Have you met our roommates?" She retorts and he snorts as he sighs and pushes himself up and off of the comfortable bed before and then promptly dragging himself into the bathroom to do as requested.

He stays in there for a good twenty minutes, letting the hot water was away the smell of sanitizer and sweat that he somehow managed to work up while at work. The water soothes him and helps him collect his thoughts about the day before he finally gets out and towels himself off. He dresses himself in a pair of sweats and an old undershirt that Nyota left out for him before padding out into her room. There he finds her, already in her bed, curled up in the blankets with what has to be the same padd, dressed in an old shirt that he recognizes to be one of his. And he finds that he doesn't mind in the slightest that she has it on because it most definitely looks better on her slim body than it ever did on him.

He chuckles when she just glances back at him and then moves her blankets aside as an invitation, one that he doesn't even hesitate to accept as he walks over and simply crawls in beside her. The exhaustion from the day has finally and truly caught up with him and he knows that it's not going to take much to fall asleep but still he can't help but want to talk to her. After all, she listened to his rant of the day, only fair he should do the same with her.

"What happened to you today?"

"Nothing as interesting as your day. Just spent the day in class, had a test that I'm fairly certain that I passed, put up with Jim hitting on me again, and then finished my night by grading papers for Commander Spock."

"Has that bastard noticed you yet?" he grumbles as she laughs and puts her padd down on her nightstand before cuddling into the warmth he's providing the bed with.

"I don't know, maybe. It's hard to tell with someone who doesn't show emotion. But I'm getting there. We talked for a good long while today when I went to pick up the papers he needed to be checked."

He chuckles when she scoots back into him even more and quickly adjusts his arms around her, pulling her flush against him, feeling the heat her body gives off mingling with his. They've stopped trying to avoid ending up like this by now, better just to start right off the bat.

"Well you can tell him on the first date that if he breaks your heart I'll make sure to inject him with a severe case of Andorian Shingles the next time he comes into medical for a check-up."

"Duly noted Len. Thank you. Now get some sleep. I'm tired and you need the rest. Computer lights off."

The room is bathed in darkness before Leonard can even think and he really doesn't want to right now. He just wants to focus on the body before him, his good friend, and some sleep that won't be interrupted by random moans in the middle of the night.

"No need to tell me twice. G'night Nyota," he murmurs, closing his eyes, as she leans her head against his shoulder, a content sigh on her lips as they both nod off pretty quickly, their breathing patterns steadying, their bodies curled close together.

Once again, it was not a relationship; it was just a thing they did. They were each other's go to people for a place to sleep, an ear to talk to, and whether they acknowledged it consciously or not, a person to help them not be so lonely when everyone else seemed to be paired off in the world. This was just what Leonard McCoy and Nyota Uhura did for each other.

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**Feedback is always appreciated. Thank you for reading! **


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